She has a secret and her whole life revolves around keeping it. Every few months and with little warning, she simply disappears, pulled into the past for hours or even days. She’s terrified it will happen in front of someone, changing her life forever. So far, the only witnesses have been her parents, and that didn’t end well. She has no control over it and no idea why it happens to her.

She wants answers.

He has answers—at least he understands what’s going on. He has a secret, too. He’s part of an organization that goes back in time to rewrite reality. But he also has a problem. He broke the organization’s number-one rule by altering his own timeline. As punishment, he’s been blocked from time travel, which is most unfortunate. Because the changes he made to his timeline, accidentally resulted in disaster for his family. A disaster he’s now prevented from repairing. No one can travel beneath the organization’s radar except a Shadow. But they’re rare, so rare he’s never even met one.

Then he moves to her town.

Excerpt:

2 Constantine Speaks:

I was close enough to breathe her in—jasmine and the air after a heavy rain. I inhaled slowly, letting her scent saturate me. Her energy wrapped around me and mingled with my own. In the midst of hallway chaos, time stopped. Our energies mixed and whirled, cutting us off from everything else. The frenzied world of Boulder High streamed around us—unnoticed and unimportant.

She closed her eyes, and I knew she was taking me in too. At least I hoped she was.

Then I just couldn’t help it, my hand floated up to her cheek completely on its own. Carefully, gently, I ran my fingers down to her chin and slowly lifted her face. Her skin was rose petal soft and it glowed with health. Her lips were full and moist and parted ever so slightly as she breathed in and out with ragged breaths. Soft lashes lay long and thick against a face completely bare of all the goop most girls wear. Bare skin was so sexy. I couldn’t help but run my fingers a few inches up her silky cheek.

She sighed and caught her breath.

I burned the moment into my brain’s hard drive.

Her energy began to build again. I let my power flow a little stronger now, helping her contain the surge that lay threatening to burst forth, should she let down her guard for even a moment. She had amazing control for someone with no training. Power, as great as hers, could be tricky. As for how that was happening with no trees near, or what was pushing her to jump, I didn’t have a clue. But I didn’t care about hows or whats or even whens.

I just wanted to be totally and completely now.

I felt her relax a little as my power compensated for hers, giving her control. She was matching my frequency, instinctually. We were in perfect harmony. As for the auditory aspect of it, it was the most beautiful music I’d ever heard.

Her skin was like velvet and I felt it warm at my touch. I said her name, softly, my hand still touching her cheek. She took a breath, bit her bottom lip, and slowly opened her eyes. And when her eyes met mine, I almost passed out. I had to brace my legs just to keep standing.

A jolt of electricity shot between us like lightening. I couldn’t tell if it came from me, or her, or if it was just an explosion of her energy connecting with mine. I didn’t know. I didn’t care. It was like nothing I’d ever felt in my life.

And I…

Suddenly, I was outside of time, experiencing it at a sped-up rate. I saw images like in a dream—tiny pieces of her timeline. Memories, hundreds of them, came swirling around me. I was in a hologram of her experiences.

They say that right before you die your life flashes before you. Only no one was dying, and what was flashing before me was her life. A younger her stood looking in a mirror as her mother bushed her hair. She was climbing a tree. She was hugging the walls at school, trying to be invisible. She was lying in a hammock, reading. She was laughing with Lex and Ipod. One after the other, memories passed through my mind, each containing the feeling she’d experienced at the time. I felt what she felt: her love for her mother, her need to be hidden, and her devotion to her friends. I saw who she was.

I saw the very essence of her.

And I liked what I saw.

J.H. grew up in Central America. She now lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies with her photographer husband and many, many books. In addition to her never-ending study of human behavior, she’s a political junkie and a certified tree hugger. Rewrite Redemption is her debut novel.